A three-dimensional display of images based on stereoscopy is well known in the art but in a majority of cases the stereoscopic viewing of three-dimensional (3D) images requires use of special eye wear and display equipment. Although this technique is well suitable for use in movie theaters and on TV sets with big screens, it is inconvenient for viewing 3D images on hand-held devices such as mobile phones, i-Pads, etc. For example, US Patent Application Publication 20110255160 (Myoung-jun Lee, et al) discloses 3D glasses, a 3D display apparatus, and a charging system for 3D glasses. The 3D glasses, which operate in association with a 3D display apparatus, includes an interface unit which is configured to connect to the 3D display apparatus and through which power is transmittable; a battery unit which supplies power to the 3D glasses; and a charging unit which is connected to the interface unit and the battery unit and which receives power input from the interface unit and charges the battery unit using the input power.
Also known in the art are autostereoscopic 3D displays that are advantageous over the aforementioned 3D displays in that no special glasses are needed to view the images that produce the illusion of depth. The 3D images generated by autostereoscopy are the result of a simulated parallax effect produced by a range of multiple viewing angles.
For example, US Patent Application Publication 20110175906 (Huabing Zheng, et al) discloses a 3D display system for displaying a 3D image. The 3D image includes at least a first image and a second image with a parallax between the first image and the second image. The 3D display system includes a display device and a liquid-crystal lens array. Further, the display device is configured to display at least two combined images of the 3D image in a single display period, and each of the two combined images includes a part of the first image and a part of the second image. The liquid-crystal lens array has a plurality of lens units configured to separate a part of the first image and a part of the second image in each of the two combined images into predetermined viewing directions, respectively, such that a complete first image and a complete second image are displayed without loss of resolution. Voltages are applied to the “n” number of strip electrodes, and these voltages may have gradually changing values that correspond to rotation angles of liquid-crystal molecules
Known in the art are stereoscopic images obtainable from 2D images by other methods. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 8,054,329 (S. Shestak, et al) discloses a high-resolution 2D-3D switchable autostereoscopic display apparatus that includes a backlight unit that emits light; a polarizer sheet that changes the light emitted from the backlight unit so that the light has only a specific polarization direction; a polarization switch that converts the direction of the polarization of incident light; a birefringent element array comprising a plurality of alternating first and second birefringent elements that changes the polarization direction of incident light so that the polarization of light transmitted by the first birefringent elements is perpendicular to the polarization of light transmitted by the second birefringent elements; a lenticular lens sheet that separates and emits incident light to a first-eye viewing zone and a second-eye viewing zone; and a display panel that displays an image.
Another example of 2D-to-3D-image conversion is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,686,926 (Kaye) which describes the scanning of images into a computer-based system and creating, with the use of graphic image software, a 3D image that can be used for viewing and for re-recording three-dimensional viewing. The process described in this patent converts only a single image to a 3D image.
Also known is the reproduction of 3D still and dynamic images on handheld devices such as cell phones and Personal Digital Assistant devices (PDA) as well as laptop and desktop computers (see, e.g., International Patent Publication WO/2008/086049 (PCT/US2008/050025) (Haohong WANG, et al). The invention relates to reproduction of 3D video images on autostereoscopic displays. The process includes culling facets facing away from a viewer, defining foreground facets for left and right views and common background facets, determining lighting for these facets, and performing screen mapping and scene rendering for one view (e.g., right view) using computational results for facets of the other view (i.e., left view). In one embodiment, visualization of images is provided on the stereo-enabled display of a low-power device, such as a mobile phone, a computer, a video game platform, or a PDA.
Integration and display of a 3D image and a camera image in a mobile device is disclosed in U.S. App. No. 20090195539 (Kim). In this application, the processing method for the integration between the two images involves recognition of a specific image pattern defined by the user, tracing of that pattern within an image, and interfacing of a camera image and a 3D image based on tracing results. The 3D object is animated and rendered using a 3D graphic engine, and the rendered image of the 3D object and the camera image are integrated and displayed.
Holographic displays unlike stereoscopic and autostereoscopic displays provide a more realistic 3D view of the principal objects and scenery of a captured image. 3D holographic images are not well known in the art. Currently, 3D images for handheld devices such as smart phones involve synthetic creation of dynamic images that require rotation of the phone in all directions in order to observe movement of the image.
Systems and methods for creating, editing, and distributing stereoscopic images have also been disclosed in prior art. For example, International Patent Publication No. WO 0180548 describes a system and method for the registration and distribution of stereoscopically complementary pairs of images suitable for a variety of different viewing formats.
Current 3D displays use lenticular lenses or a parallax barrier. Other displays use eye-tracking systems to automatically adjust two displayed images to follow movement of the viewer's eyes.